So, I’ve had in mind the last few months to do a great service to myself on cataloging and preserving my CD collection. It’s finally begun. The process is rather simple:
1. Burn CD-R’s of all music CD’s that I have. These copies go into my truck.
The reason that I want the burned copies in my truck is pretty simple&emdash;my truck is pretty easy to break into, and if I’m going to lose CD’s, I’d rather lose the copies than the originals. I’ve also noticed over the years that the most wear-and-tear my CD collection gets is when I’m driving. This is probably because I’m changing CD’s on-the-fly and paying more attention to my driving than to CD placement. If I’m going to screw up a CD, I’d rather it be a copy&emdash;I can always make another copy under fair use.
2. Rip all of my music CD’s to MP3 and store them on a file-server.
This file-server would be connected to my home network for personal use [i.e. not being KaZaa’d]. I’m not a mass-audience file-trader, and I’d never be one; if I do trade MP3’s, I trade them to friends who feel about MP3’s as I do in that they should be treated the same way as you treat physical media that you might let a friend borrow: if you like it, you buy it; if you don’t like it, you give it back and don’t keep a copy for yourself. That, to the best of my knowledge, runs under fair use [although the RIAA might disagree].
3. Create MP3-encoded CD’s for my MP3-CD boombox at work.
I don’t want all my music collection at work; because MP3’s can be smaller, I’m cool with compiling CD’s of like musicians. For example, I might put as many Blues Traveler MP3’s together as I can; I wouldn’t stick Caedmon’s Call on that same disc. I’d put Andrew Osenga, Derek Webb, and Sandra McCracken all together on one CD, because they are similar.
4. Create a MySQL catalog of all my CD’s so I can review them all at the song level.
That’s purely for my idea that collaborative filtering is a great idea; if you see that we both like a CD [and better, specific tracks on that CD], perhaps we have the same musical tastes, and you can recommend some music to me.
Right now, #1 in progress: my laptop hums away happily on the desk space to my left, burning the CD’s I’ve been able to find in my truck. [Note to self: you’re going to have to clean out the truck to find all your CD’s. Note to Todd: Shut your hole!] The burner’s only an 8x burner, but I’ve got all the time in the world for it to run at work, since I don’t need it to do anything else other than burn CD’s. I’ve got a 208-disc Case Logic case and a new detachable Case Logic visor case for the truck, and a bunch of slim cases for the MP3-CD’s [since I have some MP3’s on my laptop hard drive, I might be able to make some MP3-CD’s of like-minded artists while I’m sitting here].
Any other ideas or suggestions for stuff that should go into this project?
Why Did I Buy This Crap?
The fun thing about The Great CD Preservation Project is that I get to go through all the really, really bad CD’s that I own.
Point of Grace? That’s some terrible sugar-pop. :sigh:
Sean and I’ve been trying to work on this for our own CD collection as well. Although, mainly, we’re just trying to get MP3s ripped off all of our CDs so that if they continue to get scratched at the rate we’re scratching them (same reason, changing CDs in cars does not mean they’ll be treated nicely), then we might not lose too many more of our CDs.
Tonight, I’m going to set my laptop beside my while I do quilting work and just let it rip quietly away at some more CDs. Too bad I can’t bring my laptop into work. I could have it ripping all day while I’m at work, too.
My desktop rips quietly to my left. I have a larger server that I can use to transfer files from work to home when the time comes. 🙂
Ideas for Improved MP3 Playlist
Yeah, I had the MP3 playlist in my sidebar finished for all of, oh, a half-hour or so when I got to thinking, “I could think of a better way to use DoSomething to catalog my MP3 listening.”
Yeah, you take data from The Great CD Preservation Pr…
Great CD Preservation Project Update
After muddling my way through the Great CD Preservation Project for over a year now, I’ve decided to get a bit more organized about it. [pause for laughter]
I’ve come to a conclusion: my CD collection is out of control, although the GCPP is helpi…
Over Two Years
I was sitting here, talking with Susan about a variety of things, including her review of a recent Caedmon’s show. I said: “…[A]nd the funniest thing, I’ve linked to the Song Vault from IJSM.org long before I was ever involved.”
That’s true;…
How Do You Listen to Music?
Please think about how you listen to new albums and then tell me how you do it.
Virtual Bookshelf Meme
Dangit, I’ve been tagged by Spencer for one of these foofy meme things. This time, the theme is books, which is something I don’t have a handle on nearly as well as I might, say, my music collection. [No worries: once I finish moving int…
iTunes Re-Rating
My new music workflow is pretty simple: put the CD through the Great CD Preservation Project meatgrinder at home, rip again at the office [but only because I can rip faster than I can upload-download], listen at work.
I have two iTunes smart playlist…
How and Why I Use Last.FM
At the behest of David Thompson, I’m writing this entry on how and why I use Last.FM.
How I Use Last.FM
The how I use it comes down to a few mechanical things:
I use the various iTunes plugins—the Windows version on my office PC, and …